Aboyne Academy pupil selected for SDA Academy

Published:09:00Tuesday 11 October 2016

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Jake Ebdon from Lumphanan has been hand selected for the Scottish Downhill Association (SDA) Green Power Academy 2016.

CEO of Green Power, Rob Forrest, set up the academy in 2014 to help up and coming downhill mountain bike riders improve and reach their potential for the next season. Only 12 riders from the SDA Series (2 from each age category) are selected each year.

Jake has been racing for the last two years in the Scottish Downhill Mini series where he has achieved some great results and took to the bigger tracks of the SDA series this year extremely well improving his positioning in every race and even tackling the famous Fort William track with ease.

He has finished 12th overall in the Youth (U16) category for the series out of 45 boys.

Jake says he is delighted with the opportunity he has been given and looking forward to being coached by some top riders including Ruaridh Cunningham (UCI Junior World Champion 2007) The selected 12 will have 3 full day coaching sessions (1 a month over the winter ‘off season’) where they will cover all aspects of DH riding such as body position through to conquering the most slippy roots sections.

Jake is hoping this will stand him in good stead for podium finishes in both the SDA series (5 races and a Sottish Champs) and the British Downhill Series (BDS) also 5 races predominantly in Wales and a British Champs, which he will also be competing in next year.

The world of competitive DH biking is not cheap and Jake is extremely gratefully to Richard and Liz Watts (owners of Cycle Highlands in Ballater) for their support and assistance over this race year.